1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telephone systems, and more particularly relates to a computer-telephony integration employing an intelligent keyboard to facilitate improved user interface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modern business practice relies heavily on the use of both telephone systems and computer systems as important tools. Quite often, the simultaneous use of these powerful tools is required. Typical examples of such applications include customer service centers, telephone based sales, telephone surveys and the like.
Therefore, it is often desirable to provide a degree of interaction between the telephone system and the computer system to improve efficiency. In this case, the telephone system is capable of responding to commands received by the computer, such as dialing a telephone number from a database stored in a computer. Similarly, the computer is able to respond to commands received from the telephone system, such as providing a visual indication that a call is incoming.
Business telephony systems have become quite complex and provide a number of features in addition to local switching and control of incoming calls. These systems, often referred to as private branch exchanges (PBX), are capable of multiplexing a large number of voice and data signals from a large number of user consoles. Often, the PBX includes a caller identification (ID) function to indicate the phone number of an incoming call on the user console.
Further, many PBX also include automated touch-tone answering systems. These systems prompt the caller through a series of questions, then route the call according to answers which are entered by the caller on a touch-tone telephone. The answers, in digital form, can also be forwarded along with the incoming telephone call. This provides the user at the console with certain information about the caller, such as account number and the nature of the call, even before the call is answered. A sophisticated user console interfaced to the PBX can display such information on a computer terminal associated with the user console.
One such user console, known in the prior art, includes a telephone handset combined with a digital terminal employing a touch-sensitive cathode ray tube (CRT). The digital terminal is part of a data processing system which stores business related information, such as a database of customers. In addition, information regarding the incoming call may also be displayed on the CRT. During the course of a call, information may be entered into the data processing system by the user at the console by use of a keyboard associated with the digital terminal. Further, the touch sensitive CRT associated with the terminal allows a variety of commands to be selected by the user by touching the screen where these commands are displayed.
The use of the touch screen allows the user to enter commands with fewer key strokes on the keyboard. However, the use of a touch sensitive CRT has the disadvantage of requiring the user to remove his or her hands from the keyboard to use the touch screen. As a result, the data entry process is interrupted, resulting in inefficiencies in the call answering process. In addition, while selections are being made on the touch screen, the field of view of the screen is obscured to the user by his or her own hand. A final disadvantage associated with the use of the touch screen is that the commands which are available to the user are limited to those currently being displayed on the CRT by an active software application.
As an alternative to the use of a touch sensitive CRT, other computer-based PBX user consoles in the prior art rely on a digital pointer, such as a mouse, to control the operation of both a telephone system and a data processing system. As with the case of the touch sensitive CRT, commands related to the telephone system and data processing system are displayed on the CRT of a digital computer terminal. To select one of the commands, the digital pointer is moved until an indicator which is displayed on the CRT is proximate to the desired command. Typically, a switch on the digital pointer is then depressed to select the desired command.
While the use of the digital pointer alleviates the problem of obscuring the field of view during command selection, this system still requires the user's hands to leave the main keyboard to manipulate the digital pointer. As with the touch screen, the digital pointer can only access those commands currently being displayed by the active application on the CRT. Also, digital pointers often require additional space on a desktop on which to move the digital pointer. A further disadvantage of digital pointers is that a degree of dexterity is required to manipulate the pointer. While seemingly trivial, in the process of responding to hundreds of calls a day, this process can fatigue the user and possibly result in a repetitive motion injury.